Avian influenza is capable of infecting mammals other than humans. Like domestic cats. Cats are companion animals ("pets") in Europe and North America and live as closely with humans as birds do in Indonesia, southeast asia and China, perhaps even more closely. They are thus potential bridge vectors from birds to humans, contracting the disease by eating birds and then nestling with people. So far there have been a number of reports of naturally acquired infections probably from birds to cats and from cat to cat but not yet from cats to humans. The possibility that cats might be involved in Indonesia has been raised but little scientific work has been done. See our previous cat posts (here, here, here and here).
The current issue of CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases has another cat paper, this one from Iraq.
Personal communications in January 2006 from field veterinarians noted deaths of domestic cats that were associated with suspected (eventually confirmed) H5N1 outbreaks in eastern Turkey (2 villages) and Kurdish northern Iraq (Sarcapcarn in Sulymaniyah Governorate and Grd Jotyar in Erbil Governorate). The clinical conditions of the birds did not suggest HPAI to villagers or consulting veterinarians. In both scenarios in Iraq, results of rapid antigen detection tests with the Anigen kit (Suwon, Republic of Korea), while positive for influenza A, were negative for H5, so the outbreaks were not thought to be caused by HPAI, but concern about the unusual deaths in cats remained. Because the regions are remote and veterinary services limited, such anecdotal reports have rarely been followed up. (Yingst et al., EID)
This suggests many cat cases might have been ignored and this is likely the case. In this instance follow up was done by the US Naval Research Laboratory based in Cairo (NAMRU3). The suspicious deaths of five cats associated with the death of an entire poultry flock (51 chickens) of a household in Kurdish Iraq came to the attention of the veterinarians while assisting WHO in the area in February 2006. Genetic analysis of fragments of viral material recovered from two cat carcasses and a sick goose found nearby showed the infecting virus was more closely related to the Qinghai (western China) strain than the southeast asian strain which until now been the source of cat infections. The Qinghai strain is the source of infections in the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
The virus was found in the gut, stool and respiratory tract. The authors were unable to determine the mode of infection of the cats nor could they rule out cat to cat transmission.
These findings support the notion that cats may be broadly susceptible to circulating H5N1 viruses and thus may play a role in reassortment, antigenic drift, and transmission.
Something else for pandemic planners to think about.
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Revere, I realize you are talking about cases in countries with known AI, but here's a thought for the west.
My boys are well fed and poor hunters (female cats are better hunters, same as big cats). But just supposing they caught an H5N1 infected bird and devoured it, and got sick, what would happen when I take them to the vet? Would the vet test for H5N1 or just assume it was cat flu? A fairly common diagnosis.
Supposedly we've had one case of a swan with H5N1 here in the UK, but we all know about no-test no-find and poor sample management allegations. We also know what we think of claims or lack of reporting from countries - like the UK - that are surrounded by the virus but aren't on the outbreak map. Hmmm, sniff, what's that smell?
Even if they did test for the virus, what pressure might vets find themselves under to not confirm it? Especially vets like mine that deal with farm animals. Shoot, shovel and shut up springs to mind.
dizzy: Good question to ask your vet.
Dizzy remember if you will the testing that DEFRA has been doing with the animal protection people under contract for the last few months since the discovery in Scotland? You would expect them to be honest about something that could kill not only the birds, but pigs, poultry, horses, dogs, cats etc, right? Not so fast.
They have been testing and finding zero H5N1 and any other flu for that matter. Then on the continent, they are finding flu of various types in 25% of the birds or the antibodies for it. Canada has found H5, H3, and now we have H11.
How could there be no cases of anything in the UK? Well you lie about it like one of the spike thru the tree people in the NW US. Spike kills the tree but man you aint cutting it down with steel in it.
wouldnt worry about the cats too terribly much even though its very valid. I would worry like Revere and I do here about our governments ability to cope once it does pop loose. Your vet likely would be the second to see it and the first to close his doors to protect the animals in his care and his workers.
memphisservices@bellsouth.net
I don't know how prepared the vets are. The ones I phoned with in the Netherlands don't have anything extra until the government will deliver it. So no testing in their practice, for instance. Probably they'll send the some samples to a national lab, and others will know right away what's the case. That is, in the government. I don't know how the information management will pour it out from there.
I think that the reason most of us are here reading this and other related blogs on a daily basis is that we do not trust WHO or any other government site to warn of the beginnings of a pandemic until it is upon us. I similarly think most of us do not feel that our respective governments will do anything of real value or effectiveness to save most of us if the pandemic does sweep through our neighborhoods, towns, cities and countries; so any saving is going to be the result of our own preparedness as well as our ability to recognize the signs that a pandemic has begun. Rather than relying on vets who are probably no better informed or able to test for bird flu than we laypeople are, just the knowledge that cats becoming ill and/or dying for no apparent reason is a potential sign that H5N1 has arrived, enables us to better protect ourselves. At the very least, we know to use extra precautions around the sick kitty - masks, gloves, washing our hands with disinfectant soap after handling it, etc.
Mary: You're reading my thoughts :)
We had a dead cat behind the house some months ago, when I was prepared to detect dead birds; many found in Germany already. My neighbour found the cat and had stroked and handled it already without any protection. I urged her to wash her hands throrougly and call a vet; with my explanation about BF. Handling sick animals is a major risk, but watching a poor nice cat is definitely triggering a completely different mind set to many people.
BTW, are there any WHO people in Africa at all? We are receiving quite well or at least some information from Asia, but why not from Africa? Would be naive to assume that there were no H5N1 H2H cases.